Ukip candidate Kerry Smith quits

KERRY Smith has quit as Ukip’s candidate in a top target seat after being forced to apologise for a series of offensive comments.

In recordings of phone calls obtained by the Mail on Sunday, the would-be MP was said to have mocked gay party members as “poofters”, joked about shooting people from Chigwell in a “peasant hunt” and referred to someone as a “Chinky bird”.

They were revealed just days after he was reinstated as the party’s general election candidate in South Basildon and East Thurrock.